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My First Fabric Covered Book

In today’s post, I’m sharing a picture of my very first fabric covered book.

My First Fabric Covered Book

Back in early May a good friend Crafty Nanna took pity on my lack of sewing skills and came round to get me started with sewing. She also very kindly left me a huge pile of fabric to play with. The fabric I covered the book with has a lovely suede finish. Very tactile, and would make great books for men. I covered the book board with a light layered of PVA and applied the fabric. The turn in’s on the corners were tricky, as if I applied too much glue it seeped through and marked the surface.

Here is the book, once it has been decorated

Fabric Covered book, embellished with ATC

I created an ATC using Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Versa Fine in Onyx Black

8 Responses

The fabric has a very interesting look. – If you have problems with glue showing on the good side of your fabric, you should back it with paper. It is easy to do, and makes working with fabric as easy as working with paper.

Billie, you could cook a simple paste from flour and water, and that will already do. No need to buy methyl cellulose. Or, if you want even better archival qualities, take starch instead of flour (won’t attract grubs and bugs and as much).

Backing with PVA doesn’t sound like a good idea, because if you let the fabric touch the PVA, you wouldn’t need the backing in the first place, which is supposed to prevent exactly this case. ;-)

Another option are these plastic fusing sheets sometimes used by dressmakers. But I never found it worth spending money on the stuff, though. Paste is so easy, quickly and cheap to make:http://buechertiger.de/blog/?p=1710

There are a lot of different tutorials available online, and all methods will work; they differ in working order, and materials used – but all this is mainly a matter of taste. I found it essential to use paper that remains strong even when wet.

Thanks :) I remembered you doing experiments with different paste recipies. Thanks for the link though :) got a lot of projects on the go but will definately give the paste a go. Maybe this is a project for the winter :)

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